DROMARA welcomed Bright to St Michael’s Park last Friday night in the Corn na nGael competition.
Dromara started well and were first to score on four minutes through a Paddy Doyle point. After a further decent passage of play, Brendan McNeill opened his account with a fantastic strike from about 50 metres and soon after added a free for Dromara to go three points up.
Bright shot a few wides before a defence splitting run cut through the Dromara defence and the Bright attacker was pulled down in the box. The resultant penalty was brilliantly drilled down the middle and the scores were tied.
Dromara hit back straight away with neat points from Eoin McEvoy and Michael Toner.
Dromara ‘keeper Seamus O’Hare was called into action and made a fantastic save to deny Bright the lead by forcing the ball around his post.
The Bright shot-stopper took the resultant 45 and hit a sweet point straight between the uprights to leave Dromara one ahead at the water break.
After the break the game got scrappy with both teams missing chances. Paddy Doyle was pulled down just outside the box and converted the free himself on 22 minutes.
Dromara were defending in numbers and Bright could not make any headway, especially past the outstanding Daniel McNeill.
The away side scored again in the 26th minute with a point that could have easily flown into the Dromara net.
The hosts finished off the half with a number of blistering attacks which saw Michael McNeill and Colm Kelly scoring form great flowing movements and a terrific long range shot from Brendan McNeill to finish the half in the ascendency.
It was all tied at half-time with the scores Dromara 0-9 Bright 1-2.
Bright started the second half with a flourish and scored three points to bring the game back to just one between the teams.
Dromara were still getting good possession through Paul and Colm Kelly in the middle while Conor Burns and Liam Kelly were moving well around the edges.
However, Bright were playing ultra defensively and had 13 men behind the ball frustrating Dromara’s attacks.
Long range points were nearly the only way to score as Conor Burns and Colm Kelly duly obliged with two cracking points from way out the pitch.
Bright hit back with a lovely long range point and as Dromara were camped on their opponents’ 50 metre line, the home side’s attack broke down and Bright raced down the field to hit a superb counter attacking goal.
Shortly afterwards Dromara ‘keeper Seamus O’Hare pulled off another brilliant save to deny Bright but minutes later fate struck twice as the visitors dispossessed Dromara again and surged down the field to hit another goal.
This score really sealed the victory for Bright, who added two quick points to pull away from Dromara with only several minutes remaining.
To their credit Dromara battled on to the end and added two points to their tally from Colm and Liam Kelly but they will be left very frustrated by the fact that they controlled most of the possession but still lost the game.
The Bright team left very pleased with their evening’s work, having soaked up lots of Dromara pressure and hit great scores on the counter to win an entertaining encounter.
Dromara 0-13
Bright 3-8
CORN NA nGAEL